Great British Bake Off 2019

I thought Helena came across very well on an extra slice. It annoyed me that she was sticking to one theme because it seems silly to bake herself into a corner like that. But I really didn't think she deserved to go at all.

The Welsh one I didn't warm to at all on extra slice but I did feel bad for her. I thought they were a bit hard on her. I don't usually watch an extra slice. Are they always like that? Pointing out all her bad bakes and negative comments from the judges. I thought extra slice always sort of built them back up after their bake off eviction!?

Mr E

Season 1 Episode 1 just finished on the Food Network now. It's very dry (pun intended).

Paul, Mary, Mel and Sue are all there, but there is also a strange dude narrating.

It's on a main road, so you can see randomers walking past the windows and looking in. Looks like they change location each week.

No star baker, and 2 eliminated every week...

j@utis

Mr E wrote: »

Season 1 Episode 1 just finished on the Food Network now. It's very dry (pun intended).

Paul, Mary, Mel and Sue are all there, but there is also a strange dude narrating.

It's on a main road, so you can see randomers walking past the windows and looking in. Looks like they change location each week.

No star baker, and 2 eliminated every week...

I have to check it out! It's been long time since I watched it last time.

Earthhorse

I just watched an episode from Season One where

Paul directly helped a contestant. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?

.

I thought it changed location in later seasons too? The no star baker thing is definitely weird. Part of the fun is guessing who they’ve gone with every week!

nc6000

Was nobody else watching?

siblers

Paul said Steph's bombe was perfection, yet she got no handshake. Makes no sense.

Priya should have gone weeks ago, she seemed a bit surprised going on her reaction

LirW

Just finished, I really realised tonight that while I like the challenges a lot more this year I so don't care about any of the people. They're all boring, not overly sympathetic and I struggled a bit to stay awake.
Such a pity that they send all the gas ones home already.

Yeh I mostly feel the same Lir. Found it very hard to concentrate tonight. But I do like Steph. I've really warmed to her and I was delighted for her tonight. But everyone else... Boring, boring, boring. Priya deserved to go.

Also why are they all so rough with their bakes. Every week someone is flinging something down or pulling it out of the oven at an awkward angle or like Henry tonight holding his meringue over his head and then down and balancing it on the edge of the counter while he spoke to the camera. Very annoying. Be bloody careful people.

And did the vet say at the start she doesn't like making desserts? So we've had them say they don't like baking bread, don't like making pastry and now don't like making desserts. Do they bake at all??

Would have loved to taste some of those bombs especially Alice's tiramisu! Yum.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

I didn’t watch it tonight, just glanced at the Wiki page. Something about last week’s episode and suspect eliminations killed my weak interest in it for this year and maybe forever. I struggled to remember who was left in the competition. I’m rewatching the Beeb years on Netflix at the moment and feeling nostalgic.

jasonb

siblers wrote: »

Paul said Steph's bombe was perfection, yet she got no handshake. Makes no sense.

Thought this too. But I wonder if she didn’t get a handshake as if she did it would have been a no-brainer about her getting Star Baker again? Without the handshake there was still a chance for Alice after winning the Technical and having a great Show Stopper too. So maybe he didn’t do it to keep some suspense?

siblers

jasonb wrote: »

Thought this too. But I wonder if she didn’t get a handshake as if she did it would have been a no-brainer about her getting Star Baker again? Without the handshake there was still a chance for Alice after winning the Technical and having a great Show Stopper too. So maybe he didn’t do it to keep some suspense?

Maybe he doesn't give them for showstoppers. I've never noticed but it's usually during the signature or technical he seems to give them

I'm probably completely wrong here

confusticated

siblers wrote: »

Maybe he doesn't give them for showstoppers. I've never noticed but it's usually during the signature or technical he seems to give them

I'm probably completely wrong here

He didn't used to but then he gave one to someone last year and then to Rahul as well straight afterwards I think. There was huge excitement over a showstopper handshake which was then completely nullified by a second one.

I'm finding it a bit meh this year too. I'll keep watching but there isn't much suspense. They're mostly playing to the camera way more than on previous seasons.

I think it's fair enough though when people say they don't like doing something - it's not the same person saying it every week and it's true for all bakers I think that there are things they prefer and things they'd never choose to do.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

siblers wrote: »

Paul said Steph's bombe was perfection, yet she got no handshake. Makes no sense.

Priya should have gone weeks ago, she seemed a bit surprised going on her reaction

Well, perfection always didn’t earn a Hollywood Handshake back in the day.

I heard an interesting GBBO nugget the other day which puts how rare they used to be in perspective:

Nadiya in series 6 was the first female contestant ever to receive a Hollywood Handshake, in the penultimate episode of that series.

I’m not to trying to start gender wars, it’s simply meant as an eye-opening and illustrative fact.

Last year really skewed things. They used to seriously be like hen’s teeth. I watched an episode from series 5 this evening where Paul tells Richard that he’s in the wrong job, his swiss roll is that good. No handshake.

LirW

Those handshakes are a stupid novelty anyway.
Like what's the real point of them? They just created an unnecessary hype really.

Last year the contestants were right, this year the challenges are bang on.
I'm really sorry but I don't like Steph, she seems so cold and not sympathetic at all. All the remaining ladies are equally obnoxious, while the lads are just so smug.
The eliminations are so random this year too and more than one were so unjustified. All the sugar and spice is gone.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

LirW wrote: »

Those handshakes are a stupid novelty anyway.
Like what's the real point of them? They just created an unnecessary hype really.

Last year the contestants were right, this year the challenges are bang on.
I'm really sorry but I don't like Steph, she seems so cold and not sympathetic at all. All the remaining ladies are equally obnoxious, while the lads are just so smug.
The eliminations are so random this year too and more than one were so unjustified. All the sugar and spice is gone.

On the Beeb, they were so infrequent that they weren’t hyped really. They used to mean that what was created was truly exemplary.

Scarinae

I'm glad Priya has finally gone, I don't understand how she wasn't booted off either of the last two weeks (Why on earth they got rid of Helena last week I'll never know!) Having said that, I thought Prue was being unnecessarily harsh telling her that mauve is an unappetising colour - since when?

I thought the bombes looked amazing and that it was a great showstopper challenge, I kind of want an excuse to try making one myself now. I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed that nobody had their layers of mousse or whatever not setting properly resulting in a puddle of melted dreams, but I suppose we're far enough along in the series that the weaker bakers have been weeded out - imagine Jamie trying to make one!

I was surprised that Steph didn't get a handshake after Paul saying her bombe was the best thing he'd tasted in a long time. Having said that, he really overdid it on the handshakes last year (as noted in this Buzzfeed article) so he's obviously trying to tone it down.

So next week's theme is festivals?! I get that they're trying to do something a bit different, but whatever happened to the classic themes like pastry week?

miamee

I had to come in here to see who was out this week as the player stopped on me last night just as they went to the last ad break. Did anyone else find the techical this week, the verrines, a bit underwhelming? Maybe it's because they were so small or something. There is definitely something lacking this series. I really think one of the boys will have to go soon, none of them are doing very well, Michael in particular. That showstopper of his looked awful I thought. And his cheesecake was runny!

HeidiHeidi

No panel challenge this week on Extra Slice???


I thought I saw Stacey with a marker in her hand, I was sure they were going to make them do a backwards writing challenge, maybe it all went horribly wrong. Or, more likely, turned into a damp squib!


Priya has kids called Liam and Cian, and her surname is O'Shea...... I wonder is her husband Irish, possibly, maybe???

tea and coffee

She mentioned her husband's first name on the show during the week and it was def an Irish name.

Edit: it's Sean.

HeidiHeidi

What's "figgy pudding" when it's at home?

Steph onwards and upwards!

Zaph

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

What's "figgy pudding" when it's at home?

It's an older version of Christmas pudding without as much dried fruit, afaik.

HeidiHeidi

Delighted Henry got star baker. He's fast becoming my favourite. Closely followed by rosie.

Sorry to see Michael go though, he's so lovely.

If only David would properly fk up, and just get lost.

RhubarbCrumble

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Delighted Henry got star baker. He's fast becoming my favourite. Closely followed by rosie.

Sorry to see Michael go though, he's so lovely.

If only David would properly fk up, and just get lost.

I feel the exact same as you re: the contestants.

I didn't like Rosie but she did grow on me a bit tonight.
I was sorry to see Michael go. I was hoping he'd make it to the final.
I really like Henry. He's come out of himself so much as the weeks have gone on.
I like Steph as well.

Fcuk up? I wish David would rev up and fcuk off altogether! He's just bloody smug. I can see him making it to the final though. Smug git :mad:

alchemist33

Another week of Alice is fine by me anyway.

Michael finally started to grow on me this week and I was sad to see him go. I really like Steph and another good week from her. Don't like any of the rest of them. Rosie's not awful. David's the worst! :P

Nothing tonight looked particularly tasty.

Sunny Dayz

I quite liked Michael, there was something endearing about him.
Was there tears in Paul's eyes at the end of the episode with Michael being sent home??

Scarinae

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

What's "figgy pudding" when it's at home?

I've only heard of it because it's mentioned in the second verse of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, I've never eaten it though.

I can't remember whose bake it was, but Prue actually said something wasn't sweet enough this week?! Since she joined the programme I've found it weird how she's always saying things are too sweet, aren't worth the calories etc - like, who agrees to judge a baking contest if they don't like sweet things? - so for it to not be sweet enough for Prue they must have really mucked it up.

Henry telling Paul to shut up when he offered him a handshake was comedy gold

I'd never heard of kek lapis Sarawak, what an incredibly fiddly looking cake! I felt very sorry for Rosie burning her cakes under the grill, I think it would have been an amazing cake if she'd got it right. Her swan decorations were so well done. I love her chats with Noel (Eggy Rubber! :pac:), she seems to get his sense of humour. Whenever Noel tries joking around with Alice she just seems confused, she's very pretty but I'm not sure that she's much craic. Although Noel really did seem to be getting in Steph's way, I felt like if the camera wasn't there she might have told him to piss off.

I quite liked Michael as a contestant, but I think he was the right one to go this week. It could have been Alice if she hadn't done such a good showstopper.

Pastry week next week, I'm glad we're back to having a classic theme.

miamee

I agree it was Michael's turn to go and if it had been anyone else I'd have been very annoyed on their behalf. He's been struggling a bit for the last 2-3 weeks. I did like Henry a lot and was delighted when he got his Paul Hollywood handshake.

I found when they were doing the technical that the camera work seemed to focus more on the mistakes - oh look at them all bursting open - to the detriment of other things. I don't think we properly saw anyone putting in the chocolate with the ricotta and no close ups of them closing the parcels - the most important part as it turned out - but loads and loads of close ups of the pastries floating in oil. It's a bit annoying at times.

Still no idea who will win but I think my money would have to go on Steph at the moment.

Scarinae

Anyone else watching pastry week?

HeidiHeidi

Scarinae wrote: »

Anyone else watching pastry week?

Will have to catch up later, stuck in Saorviewland for the evening